Have you ever played an Intellivision game to the point of near mastery?

[Intelligentleman]

For me, the only time this happened was just about a month ago with Space Hawk. Believe it or not, I adopted a dual-controller approach to playing it where I used the right controller for thrusting and the left controller for aiming. Auto-fire turned on. For some reason, I find this more comfortable and more intuitive. My best run ended simply because I was tired of playing and besides that we were packing the kids up to go somewhere anyways. I could have paused it, but like I said, I was feeling pretty fulfilled at that point.

[Sinjinhawke]

Sounds like you’re a quitter.  ??

[BiffMan]

Astrosmash. 

[+SoulBuster]

Dungeons and Dragons Treasure of Tarmin.  I have run the 256 levels through a few times. You do end up at the top again.

[Intelligentleman]

2 minutes ago, SoulBuster said:

Dungeons and Dragons Treasure of Tarmin.  I have run the 256 levels through a few times. You do end up at the top again.

That's bonkers. Did you do it in a single sitting, or did you pause and come back to it?

[Flojomojo]

From back in the days when it was a comfort to play for a long time, since the arcade demanded money from you: SPACE HAWK, just like you. It was fun until it wasn't. It becomes a snooze quickly enough. 

[wolfy62]

Swords and Serpents,with the disappointing ending.?

 

[mr_me]

I remember borrowing Space Hawk from a friend back in 1982/83.  I only had it a couple of days but always collected countless extra men and only stopped playing when my parents called me to go.  Today, I would stop playing when I get to the rainbow bubbles.

 

The game is to too easy.  Space Hawk and Astrosmash were the first two arcade style cartridges created at Mattel.  I heard somewhere that there was an internal debate with Mattel programmers on whether to make games easy or hard.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were consumer complaints of these cartridges being too easy.  Then there was night stalker with the invisible robot.  Locknchase where the cops become incredibly fast on level ten.  Deadly Discs has the guards with the sticks that take four hits each to kill.  B17 suddenly becomes impossible.  And Shark Skark and Vectron.  Programmers decided that they weren't going to let any kid beat them.

[Intelligentleman]

28 minutes ago, mr_me said:

I remember borrowing Space Hawk from a friend back in 1982/83.  I only had it a couple of days but always collected countless extra men and only stopped playing when my parents called me to go.  Today, I would stop playing when I get to the rainbow bubbles.

 

The game is to too easy.  Space Hawk and Astrosmash were the first two arcade style cartridges created at Mattel.  I heard somewhere that there was an internal debate with Mattel programmers on whether to make games easy or hard.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were consumer complaints of these cartridges being too easy.  Then there was night stalker with the invisible robot.  Locknchase where the cops become incredibly fast on level ten.  Deadly Discs has the guards with the sticks that take four hits each to kill.  B17 suddenly becomes impossible.  And Shark Skark and Vectron.  Programmers decided that they weren't going to let any kid beat them.

I feel like some games do a good job with their difficulty options. Super hard for the pros and accesible for the newbs.

[poconojo]

For me it was the original D&D game. I used to win the game on the hardest level with all three warriors, and a ton of arrows left. I cannot beat the game now on hardest level though. My reflexes aren't the same now.

[+JasonlikesINTV]

A few years back during the HSC, I was playing Mouse Trap on the easy level (no predatory hawk) and got to the point where I was earning lives faster than I was losing them.  After 99 extra lives it switched to characters.  I played a few hours a night for around a week leaving the console on with a fan cooling it while I was at work.  I got bored and just got reset with a score of just over 20 million and ?4 lives remaining.

[wolfy62]

1 hour ago, JasonlikesINTV said:

A few years back during the HSC, I was playing Mouse Trap on the easy level (no predatory hawk) and got to the point where I was earning lives faster than I was losing them.  After 99 extra lives it switched to characters.  I played a few hours a night for around a week leaving the console on with a fan cooling it while I was at work.  I got bored and just got reset with a score of just over 20 million and ?4 lives remaining.

THAT is an absolutely great story! ?

[+SoulBuster]

17 hours ago, Intelligentleman said:

That's bonkers. Did you do it in a single sitting, or did you pause and come back to it?

I ran it through twice in one sitting.  It only takes a couple hours to get through it once.  Once you get the book that allows you to go through walls, you do not have to open any doors.  Easy.

[BiffMan]

18 hours ago, SoulBuster said:

Dungeons and Dragons Treasure of Tarmin.  I have run the 256 levels through a few times. You do end up at the top again.

Same here, I used to play to where only killing the minotaur on 256 was a true win and would time myself on how quickly I could do that as the measure of success. 

[mr_me]

16 hours ago, Intelligentleman said:

I feel like some games do a good job with their difficulty options. Super hard for the pros and accesible for the newbs.

Other than B17 none of the games I mentioned have difficulty options at all.  They have slower game speed options which only makes everything slower but otherwise doesn't change the game at all.  Cartridges like AD&D, Sub Hunt, Star Strike, and Space Battle have true difficulty options but they weren't programmed at Mattel.

[+Black_Tiger]

I mastered Treasure of Tarmin bitd. Knew every layout, didn't bother with an overlay and flew through super fast. I remember that there were actually more levels than the manual said there were.

[IntyFanMatt]

For me, I would say Space Battle on the hardest level (pressing #4 on the key pad).  It's very hard but still a thrill to beat it today.  Have always loved me some Space Battle.

[+SoulBuster]

Burger Time was another for me.  Understanding how the badies move is key.  When Super Chef came out with 69 levels, that threw me for a loop for a little while.

[Intelligentleman]

2 hours ago, mr_me said:

Other than B17 none of the games I mentioned have difficulty options at all.  They have slower game speed options which only makes everything slower but otherwise doesn't change the game at all.  Cartridges like AD&D, Sub Hunt, Star Strike, and Space Battle have true difficulty options but they weren't programmed at Mattel.

Yeah the ones that simply adjust game speed are kind of annoying. I like playing Space Hawk and Night Stalker on disc speed exclusively.

[Intelligentleman]

Star Strike, while ultimately flawed, has decent difficulty settings, at least.

[IntyFanMatt]

D&D Cloudy Mountain on disc speed is a challenge but it’s amazing. The only way to play it in my opinion.  Makes listening for sounds and triangulating the monsters even more important. 

[+BBWW]

For me it was Demon Attack and Happy Trails. I was unbeatable back in the day. Damn good at Shark Shark too. LOL

[falvster]

Yes.......a few days before Christmas, as a kid, I opened up my gift donkey Kong cartridge and by Xmas day I had mastered the game and subsequently returned it for another game.[emoji4]

It was a lousy game though.

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[+Black_Tiger]

I was very disappointed with Space Hawk bitd, but this motivated me to master it in an attempt to find some kind of enjoyable content buried deep within the game.

 

I could play indefinitely without dying and circle around all enemies perfectly. I spent at leazt an hour one time circling an amoeba trying to kill it. Just to see if it was posdible.

 

In the end I found that there is very little to see and that it peaks early on.

[1980gamer]

I can score 300 on bowling pretty consistently.

Auto Racing is another I am pretty good at...  Well, used to be at least.

Sharp Shot too.

 

I would say Baseball, Football etc.  But that is hard to judge...  I beat everyone I played against, but I could just be a big fish in a small pond?

 

Tron Deadly Discs...   I could score millions I am certain by playing the upper doors,  but I find the game actually fun when you play aggressive and run around the grid.

Just when you get hit, you cannot avoid the stick guys!!